Time Regained

During this period of confinement, we often find ourselves focused on what is not much farther than a few meters in front of us, realizing that the simple act of looking is at once intricate and unpredictable. Brief instants can stretch toward infinity. The selection brings together three artists who lend a quiet dignity to moments of everyday life, recognizing that significance can be found in the small things in life, or like Marcel Proust wrote about Chardin: “...it is the expression of what was most intimate in his life and of things in their most profound aspect, and so it addresses our life, comes to touch upon it, slowly inclining us towards things and bringing us closer to the heart of them.” Thomas Schütte’s intimate portraits capture the character and the shifting moods of his subjects. He catches a passing moment with delicate lines and as a precise draughtsman depicts his sitters in reflection. The intuitive practice of Cecilia Edefalk draws from encounters in her everyday life. She meditates on things like an androgynous face or a twig of a weeping birch tree and transforms nature in art with an authentic intimacy. Edi Rama, artist and Prime Minister of Albania covers official documents with colored stream-of-consciousness abstractions. Allowing his hand to wander while deliberating affairs of state gives him a sense of meditative clarity.